June 12, 2014 "ICH"
- "The
Independent" -
In the space of a year he has become the most
powerful jihadi leader in the world, and on Monday
night his forces captured Mosul, the northern
capital of Iraq. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, also known as
Abu Dua, the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and
the Levant (Isis) has suddenly emerged as a figure
who is shaping the future of Iraq, Syria and the
wider Middle East.

He began
to appear from the shadows in the summer of 2010
when he became leader of al-Qa’ida in Iraq (AQI)
after its former leaders were killed in an
attack by US and Iraqi troops. AQI was at a low
point in its fortunes, as the Sunni rebellion,
in which it had once played a leading role, was
collapsing. It was revived by the revolt of the
Sunni in Syria in 2011 and, over the next three
years by a series of carefully planned campaigns
in both Iraq and Syria. How far al-Baghdadi is
directly responsible for the military strategy
and tactics of ISIS, once called AQI, is
uncertain: former Iraqi army and intelligence
officers from the Saddam era are said to play a
crucial role, but are under al-Baghdadi’s
overall leadership.

There are
disputes over his career depending on whether
the source is ISIS itself, US or Iraqi
intelligence but the overall picture appears
fairly clear. He was born in Samarra, a largely
Sunni city north of Baghdad, in 1971 and is well
educated. With black hair and brown eyes, a
picture of al-Baghdadi taken when he was a
prisoner of the Americans in Bocca Camp in
southern Iraq between 2005 and 2009, makes him
look like any Iraqi man in his thirties.

His
real name is believed to be Awwad Ibrahim Ali
al-Badri al-Samarrai, who has degrees in Islamic
Studies, including poetry, history and
genealogy, from the Islamic University of
Baghdad. He may have been an Islamic militant
under Saddam as a preacher in Diyala province,
to the north east of Baghdad, where, after the
US invasion of 2003, he had his own armed group.
Insurgent movements have a strong motive for
giving out misleading information about their
command structure and leadership, but it appears
al-Baghdadi spent five years as prisoner of the
Americans.

After
the old AQI leadership was killed in April 2010,
al-Baghdadi took over and AQI became
increasingly well organised, even issuing
detailed annual reports over the last two years,
itemising its operations in each Iraqi province.
Recalling the fate of his predecessors as AQI
leader, he insisted on extreme secrecy, so few
people knew where he was. AQI prisoners either
say they have never met him or, when they did,
that he was wearing a mask.

Taking
advantage of the Syrian civil war, al-Baghdadi
sent experienced fighters and funds to Syria to
set up Jabhat al-Nusra as al-Qa’ida’s affiliate
in Syria. He split from it last year, but
remains in control of a great swathe of
territory in northern Syria and Iraq. Against
fragmented and dysfunctional opposition, he is
moving fast towards establishing himself as Emir
of new Islamic state.

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